WEB DESIGNER | BUSINESS GUY | NERD I REALLY HATE HELEVETICA

Well, it’s the new year and 2009 is shaping up to be a silly, silly year. The only words that I can muster up to describe it are busy, insane and chaos. So with that outta the way, I’m happy to bring back the Random Thoughts posts from it’s two-three week self imposed hiatus.

Here’s the funniest part of all this. This story will probably get a sixty second spot on the evening news, and the folks who are interested will fire up Google to find out more (I remain unconvinced that anyone uses those annoying “links in the news” sections of TV station websites). And guess where they’ll end up? Potentially here, and definitely at Techvibes (and they can then follow a link to all my photos and videos from the event).

Fourth – Here’s the a neat little graph about the benefits of Social Media Marketing. (P.s. I can’t recall where i got this link, so If it was you that twittered it send me a note and I will properly cite you.)

Def Leopard drummer Rick Allen loses one arm, the result of which is two and a half decades of people asking “what has nine arms and sucks?” Michael Jackson got set on fire shooting a Pepsi commercial. We all thought this would be the weirdest thing to happen to him. Marvin Gaye is shot to death. By his father. With a gun Gaye gave him a few months before. It’s still weird.

Ten – The second link from Andrew is a mash-up of Cold Play’s Fix you with clips from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.

Eleventh – Do you watch E!‘s The Soup? Well you should be, because it’s hilarious.

Last week they ran their top clips of 2008. While most of the list was bizarre and hilarious nothing compares to the jaw dropping shock of the #1 clip. It’s from the reality show Scream Queens, which follows wannabe actors vying for a roll on Saw VI. (P.S. NSFW)

Twelveth – Again from Kottke.org’s massive best of 2008 list is a video clip of a European prankster Remi scoring goals in garbage bins, police stations, pizza parlors and other random locations set to the tune of THUNDERSTRUCK!

Thirteenth – And to finish it all off we have Calgary’s Poploser once again, with his definitive wrap-up of all that was 2008. More importantly is revival of the muxtape interface for his Top 40 Songs of 2008. A great mix and something that will get you interested in a few more spectacular bands, like the Cold War Kids, Beck, Ra Ra Riot, and Frightened Rabbit.

Some concept of Hybrid Media might work for this kind of situation. Technologically, the tools involved are very ‘new’ for those involved.
But our basic notions of journalism remain pretty firmly rooted in ‘old’ media practices.

I completely agree that basic notions of journalism are rooted in ‘old’ media practices and the should be. For however inflexible and slow the ‘old’ media seems to be, the principles that define it need to be maintained. If they are not, then the information that we find will lose all sorts of credibility.

But what I think Mack does a great job in his little critique is to call out the ‘old’ media for not changing with the times and for also not utilizing the growing amount of information around them. They could have easily saved themselves time and money, by linking to other user generated content about the event (like Mack’s article or even his flickr photos). But instead chose to standalone as a single entity, which completely ignores one of the most useful aspects of the the great world wide web.

c.t.o connect

About Me

Connor Turner is the guy behind c.t.overdrive. He is a web designer, entrepreneur and all around pop-culture nerd. This site has been running since 2006 and is a collection of random rants and interesting links. If you want some info on the "cto" check out the about me page.